Barnwood House Hospital - Frederick Needham

Frederick Needham

Frederick Needham, former superintendent of York Asylum, became medical superintendent of Barnwood House in 1874. Under his direction the institution expanded, housing 129 patients by 1882, compared to 60 in 1864, and was described as a "model lunatic hospital".

"A model lunatic hospital: The Commissioners in Lunacy report that, on each recurring visit they find improvements completed or in progress, and an evident desire on the part of the committee, as of the superintendent, to render the hospital as perfect an institution for the care and treatment of the insane as it is possible to arrive at…. The rates of board charges are most moderate, the dietary is generous, the salaries of the officers are liberal, and the entertainments are sumptuous, and yet a profit of upwards of £4,000 a year is realized."

Even the sanitary arrangements were singled out for praise:

"The same thoughtfulness and judicious provision which have brought the general management of Barnwood House Asylum to such a high pitch of excellence have evidently been brought to bear on its sanitary arrangements….The water-closets are all self-acting by means of rods, not wires, and have Tyler’s enamelled iron S-trapped pans and 6 inch soil pipes"

But a darker side to the "model lunatic hospital" was revealed by newspaper reports of inquests into suicides, including that of the unexplained death of Barnwood’s junior assistant medical officer, Richard Bush Drury Batt, in 1886.

(The inquest revealed that Batt had complained of the reoccurrence of a complaint which resulted in a pain in his back. The autopsy found that one of his kidneys had protruded into his stomach but could find no obvious cause of death. )

Whilst at Barnwood Needham took part in the regular entertainments and concerts, once playing the part of King Giltgingerbread in The Enchanted Princess; wrote a number of papers, including Brain Exhaustion and Insanity in relation to Society; and was president of the Psychological Association of Great Britain and Ireland in 1887. He left Barnwood in 1892 to become a Commissioner in Lunacy, and was knighted in 1915.

Rules for attendants at Barnwood House, published in 1880, stress the importance of obeying the orders of superintendent and matron, confidentiality, kindness and consideration towards patients.

• Rule number 9: "The delusions of Patients are to be treated with most considerate kindess, and in no way made the subject of merriment or amusement."
• Rule number 11: "No attendant shall indulge in or express angry or vindictive feelings towards the Patients…"
• Rule number 12 "Nothing in the way of punishment is ever to be used to the Insane."